Ironsteve Hits 40 and Shares His Experience

Ironsteve is still frolicking around the countryside with his trusty sidekicks Kittykins and Mcmewington on his perilous journey to 85. He's not letting his absence of talents or the fact that he's basically naked get him down though! Just last night good ol' Ironsteve hit level 40 and he celebrated by purchasing himself a shiny new set of Augmented Chain Armor and a Hula Girl Doll so that he could run around in style (and so that his neck slot wouldn't look so darn empty)!

Steve and his fuzzy companions have also been quite successful in their hunt for the rarest of rare beasts across Azeroth. For your viewing pleasure Ironsteve has put together what could almost be considered rare spawn wallpaper below.

Ironsteve has had a couple of close calls, and he is realizing that this challenge is only going to get harder as he continues his quest. Ironsteve has also realized from past experience (perhaps in a previous life?) a few rules to live by that can be helpful in avoiding death, especially when that one death is the final death. Those are:

Ironsteve's Ironman Challenge Rules to LIVE by

• Stay away from elevators, edges of cliffs, tall structures, anywhere where falling is a possibility.
• Stick to green mobs. Green mobs you will be far more likely to hit/crit, and their aggro radius's are much shorter than higher level mobs.
• Clear the area! If you see something that you need to loot on the ground for example, and there are 10 mobs between you and it. CLEAR THEM. All of them. Especially those perky humanoid mobs that like to run away and grab all of their friends when they get low on health. Believe me, it's worth the extra minute or two of clearing. 
• Stick to roads, don't run through packs of hostile mobs. Getting dismounted with four rabid bears and a handful of zombies chasing after you can be a quick death sentence.
• Don't go into caves, houses, castles, anything where you have to go INSIDE of something. If you feel you just have to or you'll explode, make sure the mobs are at least a few levels lower than you.
• Don't go afk, just don't. If you absolutely have to, hearth out or get to a "safe" spot and log out. The last thing you need is for hostile npc's to start spawning back in on top you, or worse -- for Deathwing to take you out while your toon was sitting around at some friendly quest hub waiting for you to come back.
• Don't do any escort quests. Some escort quests out there can spawn 3-4 mobs at a time, all of which are hell bent on seeing you very much dead. Usually the npc's we're escorting are incompetent fools that run off and pull more angry mobs and they don't even fight for themselves. Believe me, escorts = bad.
• If a particular quest line is getting noticeably difficult, stop. You can always come back to it when your a higher level. 
• Most Importantly - BE AWARE of your surroundings. Pan your camera around, look behind your toon, watch for patrols, listen for that stealthy rogue sound, look to the sky (if it turns red - HEARTH).

If I've forgotten any please, for the love of puppies, let me know! 

Ironsteve is Still Kicking and Looking for Rares!

I'm continuing to have a blast participating in this crazy no death Ironman Challenge that everyone and their grandmother seems to be doing right now. Ironsteve just hit level 30 today, and he is still alive and going strong(ish)! 

I've been sticking to green mobs and quests, as well as green rares to gain xp. I do the occasional grey quest and I've been trying to stay away from the yellow ones altogether to play it extra safe. I've killed a couple of yellow rare mobs but I haven't been seeking those out because naturally they tend to hit harder and the risk of death rises significantly when engaging them. 

Like I mentioned in my last post pertaining to the Ironman Challenge, I'm hunting rares down because they net a very large amount of xp per kill and they tend to respawn fairly quickly up until you hit Outland. Check out the screen shot below, Ursol'lok gave me roughly 2 bubbles worth of xp at level 25. Killing that one mob was basically worth a quest turn in.

Click to Enlarge

Here are a few of the rares that I've found since I last posted. Notice how pretty much all of them are green to me. ~

I mentioned before that I planned on mapping out all of the low level rares in each zone, well I still plan on doing that. If I can ever peel myself away from Ironsteve and these damn meeting minutes I'm supposed to be working on for my actual real job I'll get a few posts up.

Until next time, keep those fingers crossed for Ironsteve!!

Ironman Challenge with a Rare Twist

After reading the Ancient's posts over at Tome of the Ancient about trying the ridiculous no-death version of the Ironman Challenge I have to say, I was quite intrigued. Recently I have also been seeing topics pop up more and more on the official WoW forums about this challenge and decided enough was enough, no more reading about it, I needed to give this challenge a shot. If you haven't yet heard of the ironman challenge the rules are this:

1) No Heirloom gear
2) Only White or Grey gear is allowed
3) No enhancements to gear
4) No buffs unless its class specific. (No food buffs and buffs from others, but personal buffs of the class are permitted. Shaman totems, Aspect of the Hawk, Mark of the Wild - etc.)
5) No potions/Flasks/Elixirs - unless needed for questing.
6) No Talents or Specialization, No Glyphs (Hunter Pets ARE included in this)
7) No Guilds (Unless its a level 1 guild designed for this challenge)
8) No groups
9) No dungeons/Raids
10) No Battlegrounds or Arenas
11) No professions or secondary skills - except for first aid.
12) No add-ons that assist in leveling/combat.
13) No sending gold or items from other toons. (bank alts for the specific challenger are okay)
14) Lastly, and the most important: If you Die, you delete the toon and start over.

There are no rewards for completing this challenge. No achievements, titles, mounts...nothing. Just a personal sense of accomplishment.

So without further adieu, I'd like to introduce you to Ironsteve~

I chose Ironsteve using random integers at Random.org. I was hoping to roll on alliance side because I am a lot more familiar with the new starting quests, but ultimately I was happy to land a hunter as I have quite a few of them and am familiar with the class. Also, I chose the name steve because for some reason I think it is hilarious.

Now on to my little twist!


It's not really a huge twist, but it's one that I thought would be quite fitting for my blog. Obviously I hunt rares, a lot of them. Well, for the Ironman challenge a fairly large amount of my XP has been and will be coming from hunting down rare spawns! At low levels rares are worth a phenominal amount of XP and most of them respawn fairly quickly (some of them as quickly as 5-10 minutes). Good ol' Fenwick Thatros here in the screenshot below netted me a good three bubbles worth of XP even at four levels below me!

I will also be questing a bit, but all quests I work on will be grey or green for safety sake. The same thing will apply to the rares I will be hunting. Some low level rares are pushovers, but several of them do hit a lot harder than other mobs in the area. For example, Bayne hit pretty damn hard when I was taking him out and I was anywhere lower than level 10. One time I came very close to death when I took him out, I was probably level 8 at that point. Once I was a couple of levels above him though, I could take him out very easily and each time I killed him I gained a good 2-3 bubbles worth of XP. I will be tracking my progress so long as Ironsteve is still alive, and once dead I will remake him in an effort to try again.

This morning I hit level 20 on him and he's still trekking along!

Also, for anyone else interested in destroying some rares for some easy XP while doing the ironman challenge or for anyone else interested in finding super low level rares at all, I will be scouring each zone as I level and mapping all of them out in the near future.

I would also like to note that playing this way for the last few days has been more fun than playing my max level toons for the past year or so. I AM HAVING A BLAST. I would definitely recommend this for anyone who has been playing a while and has become a little bored with the game.

More Ironman Challenge info:
The Official Ironman Challenge Thread (on the official WoW forums)
Current Challengers

Shadowmoon Valley Rares

There are a total of three rare spawns located in Shadowmoon Valley. All three of them are required for the Bloody Rare Achievement. NPCScan Overlay is fairy close with all of their patrol areas, I did tweak the map a little bit below however to make it a little more accurate. 

Ambassador Jerikkar
Ambassador Jerikkar is a level 69 satyr demon that can be found patrolling around any one of five different locations in Shadowmoon Valley. These locations are marked in blue on the above map, and they are (starting at the northernmost point and moving clockwise): Coilskar Point, Ruins of Baa'ri, Dragonmaw Fortress, Eclipse Point and Illidari Point. 


He isn't incredibly obvious when he is up, but he does stand out a bit from the mobs around him because of his bright red color and huge sword. He should also be fairly simple to take down for anyone around his level. He has a 4 second silence and an annoying pally-style bubble he can cast on himself called Diplomatic Immunity. Rather appropriate for an Ambassador don't ya think? 


He drops level 66 boe bracers of a random armor type with a random enchant. Those bracers are: Illidari Bindings, Illidari Bracers, Illidari Wristguards and Illidari Vambraces. 

                                             

Kraator
Kraator is a level 68 Abyssal Demon that can spawn in five different spots in Shadowmoon Valley. These locations are highlighted in red on the above map. 


He doesn't move around much at all once spawned in, and he is very VERY easy to notice because he is HUGE. He is also extremely easy to take out for those around his level, and he uses only one ability: Immolation. 

He drops level 68 boe boots of a random armor type with a random enchant. Those are: Abyssal Cloth Footwraps, Abyssal Leather Treads, Abyssal Mail Greaves and Abyssal Plate Sabatons.

Also, check it out! In the video below Meissa (the cute lil hunter in pink) gets her Bloody Rare Achievement here!!! ^-^

                                               

Collidus the Warp-Watcher
Collidus the Warp-Watcher is a level 68 floating eye demon that patrols in four areas in Shadowmoon Valley. NPCScan has three areas marked for him however. The south eastern area they have highlighted is actually two separate patrol areas and I have re-highlighted them on the map above in brighter green.


Like the other rares in SMV, he can easily be killed by toons around his level. He has a couple of weird castery type abilities including some kind of eye beam thingy, blink and a fear. My hunter didn't really notice any of them though...


The most important thing about this rare is the loot he drops. Holy eye patch awesomeness batman!! He drops a level 68 boe eye patch of a random armor type with a random enchant. These are the patches: Amethyst Beholder Eye (Pink), Emerald Beholder Eye (Green), Fiery Beholder Eye (Orange) and Crimson Beholder Eye (Pink). I'd also like to point out that the Crimson Beholder Eye is the ONLY plate eye patch currently available in game. So those of you plate wearers into transmogrification, you may want to keep and eye out for this guy. Just last week I had someone offer me 700 gold for this item in trade chat.

                                                 

Meme the Sixth, a Day Late and a Dollar Short

I got tagged this morning by both Navi and the Ancient for the Meme the Sixth challenge which was recently started by Gnomeaggedon. I thought it seemed quite interesting (and ever so slightly evil for those of us late to the game who don't know very many other bloggers).

But...I can never resist a screenshot challenge...

The Rules

• Go into your image folder
• Open the sixth sub-folder and choose the sixth image.
• Publish the image! (and a few words wouldn’t hurt, though I dare say I couln’t stop a blogger from adding a few words of their own).
• Challenge six new bloggers.
• Link to them.

In my image folder I didn't have any subfolders, so what I did was created folders by arranging my pictures into folders randomly by date. From there I picked the sixth created folder and this was the sixth image:

Apparently that folder ended up being a whole ton of screenies I had taken during the battle for Gnomeregan event before the Cataclysm launch. I'm kind of glad this was my sixth as I think it's kind of a fun looking screen shot. It's certainly not every day you get to see the bottom of a falling bear or elekk on a parachute.

Since I finally got to this so late in the game though I'm sure some of my chosen bloggers have been tagged already (and I apologize if you have).

If by some miracle you haven't,

Dreamy
Fay
Lilpeanut
Akabeko
Vuuk
Somnar

Tag, you're it!

Netherstorm Rares

There are three rare spawns located in Netherstorm. All three (unfortunately) are required for the Bloody Rare Achievement. I say unfortunately because one of them is a highly desirable hunter pet. Nuramoc (a gorgeous chimaera pet) is the only rare unique hunter pet in ALL of outland.

Ever-Core the Punisher
Ever-Core the Punisher is a level 68 arcane guardian that can be found patrolling in three different areas in Netherstorm. He patrols in full circles around Manaforge B'Naar and Manaforge Ultris, and on the southern side of Manaforge Ara. His patrol areas are highlighted in blue on the map above.


He is very obvious when he's up because he is quite large and he looks very different from the mobs around him. He is not difficult to kill, unless your naked or something. He has only a couple of abilities and those are Arcane Explosion and Suppression. So yeah, casters might find him slightly annoying if too close, otherwise hes cake. Mmmmmm.


Ever-Core the Punisher drops one noteworthy item, and that is: Arcane Loop. It's a level 66 boe ring with a random enchant.

                                     

Chief Engineer Lorthander
Chief Engineer Lorthander is a level 69 blood elf mage that can be found patrolling around any one of the Manaforges in Netherstorm except for Manaforge Ultris. His patrol areas are highlighted in red on the above map.

He is not incredibly obvious when he is up. The only really distinguishing thing about him is his weapon. He wields a weapon that is completely unique, specifically a keyblade. You may recognize his weapon from Uldaman, where you needed to attach the shaft of Tsol and the Gni'Kiv Medallion to create the Staff of Prehistoria which opened the room to Ironya. As far as I know, currently there are no weapons in game that players can wield that match that match Chief Engineer Lorthander's Staff. A staff has been introduced to the game that matches his perfectly. It is called the Key to the Planes. I also have an entire transmog outfit on my other blog put together to match his look, see it here: Look like an NPC - Chief Engineer Lorthander Transmog.

Chief Engineer drops one noteworthy item, and that is: Illidari Cloak, which is a level 66 boe cloak with a random enchant.

Nuramoc
Nuramoc is a sweet level 70 unique Beast Mastery chimaera pet that is unfortunately needed for the Bloody Rare achievement. His patrol areas are marked in green on the above map. He's so flippin' cool that he has an entire post dedicated to him right here.

Pretty in Pink - Loving my Swift Lovebird

(I'm breaking the line of Bloody Rare related posts to bring you a not so rare related news bulletin regarding pink flamingos!) 

The first day the Swift Lovebird went live I had to hold myself back from buying one immediately. The moment I found out this pretty birdy was going to be added to the game I just knew he would go perfect with Mazzranache and my Mulgore Hatchling and I just HAD to have him!!

The mount costs 270 Love Tokens, which are earned through dailies, and can be purchased from Lovely Merchants in any of the capitol cities. However, you can also purchase tokens with Lovely Charm Bracelets at a 1 = 1 trade ratio. That means, 10 Lovely charms = 1 bracelet. Ouch. When I first saw this mount listed on the ah I couldn't fathom the thought of paying someone 30k gold to have what would inevitably go way down in price in a week or so. I also couldn't imagine farming well over 2k Lovely Charms to get enough Love Tokens to purchase one early.

What I did was sort of a mix between the farm/daily method. I farmed a few hundred charms last Sunday, then I used one of my husbands toons to disperse them among my "mains" so that I could turn in each capitol city daily quest every day. To make things even quicker I used his mage once or twice for ports. *Shhhh don't tell him*

If your looking for a great spot to farm Lovely Charms at level 85 my top choice is The Fleshwerks in Icecrown (Pre-phased). The mobs there have only 3780 hp each and they respawn instantly! Even with one or two other people there as competition you can still gather a hefty amount because a set number of mobs always HAVE to be up! My second choice (if the first is too crowded, or phased) is Aldur'Thar in northern Icecrown. The mobs there are plentiful and like the ones at the Fleshworks a certain number have to be up at all times.

The Fleshwerks

The Fleshwerks (2 min after DK landing and spamming Death Grip while spinning 360 degrees)

Anyone interested in getting the sweet matching hunter pet, check out my post on Mazzranache. If she's not up, there are other pink tallstriders in Southern Barrens as well called Deviate Plainstriders.

As far as the cute little Mulgore Hatchling is concerned, horde characters have it a little easier here because they're the ones who can actually obtain it. A whole bunch of dailies to open up the Argent Tournament vendors, and then a few more days to get enough Champion's Seals to purchase the little guy. Alliance needs to either have some horde connections on their server or find it on the auction house.

Pink will NEVER go out of style!

Also, I want to give a big thanks to Dreamy from Drunkard's Regalia! She drew an amazing picture this morning of my lil hunter and her pretty birdies that just blew me away! Check out her blog for more astonishing wow-related artwork. ^-^

Blade's Edge Mountains Rares

There are a total of three rare spawns in Blade's Edge Mountains. All three of them are required for the Bloody Rare Achievement. NPCScan overlay is very close for all of them, but I still fine-tuned the map a little to show slightly more accurate patrol areas.

Hemathion
Hemathion is a level 68 dragon that spawns on the Ogri'la plateau in Blade's Edge Mountains. He can be found walking on the ground in two separate patrol areas. One of those is just north of Ogri'la, and the other is just south of it. His patrol area is highlighted in blue on the above map. Please note that although NPCScan has the entire southern area highlighted that he just patrols around the edge of it.

This mob does not fly. You will only ever find him walking on the ground. Also, if you find him on a toon of similar level if might be helpful to know that he does fear, so be careful of the surrounding mobs in the area. Other than that he's pretty easy to take out, his only other ability is a breath attack.

He drops a level 68 boe chest piece of a random armor type with a random enchant. The four possibilities are: Drakeweave Raiment, Drakehide Tunic, Drakescale Hauberk and Drakescale Breastplate.

                                         

Morcrush
Morcrush is a level 68 giant colossus who can be found patrolling in several different areas in eastern Blade's Edge. He's easy to spot when he's up because he is HUGE. His patrol areas are marked in red on the above map. Hunters don't forget, you can use track giants to help find him.

If you find this guy on a toon around his level be careful where you engage him. It's easy to pick up other mobs in the area and Morcrush will also summon three smaller rock adds while your fighting him making it easy to become overwhelmed. (I believe the shardlings are fearable.) If you watch the video below you'll see I picked up like half of the zone when I engaged him.

Morcrush drops level 68 boe shoulders of a random armor type with a random enchant. They are: Felstone Mantle, Felstone Spaulders, Felstone Epailets and Felstone Pauldrons.

Speaker Mar'grom
Speaker Mar'grom is a level 68 two-headed orge mage. He spawns in four different areas in Blade's Edge, each spawn location is near one of the main orge encampments in the valley area of the Zone. The northernmost spawn point being Gruul's Lair and the southernmost being Bloodmaul Outpost.

He is pretty easy to spot when he is up because of his bright orange garb and his fancy staff. His staff, for anyone interested, is a really big version of Staff of Dominance which drops off of Golemagg the Incinerator in Molton Core.

He is not difficult to down, but if he spawns outside of Gruul's Lair you'll need to be careful as the surrounding mobs in the area are elite. However, if you talk to Grok in Shattrath City, he will give you a quest to speak with Mog'dorg the Wizened (the ogre that opens up the Ogri'la quests). Once you complete his line of quests (5-man quests at level 70) the hostile orges in the area will all become neutral making Speaker Mar'grom stick out quite easily.

Speaker Mar'grom drops boe level 66 gloves of a random armor type with a random enchant. They are: Nethersteel-Lined Handwraps, Nethersteel-Reinforced Gloves, Nethersteel Gauntlets and Nethersteel Handguards.

                                       

Nagrand Rares

There are a total of three rare spawns in Nagrand, however only two of them are required for the Bloody Rare Achievement. The two needed for Bloody Rare are Goretooth and Voidhunter Yar. Although Bro'Gaz the Clanless is not required as part of the achievement I will still cover him in this post. 

Goretooth
Goretooth is a level 65 crocolisk that can be found in four different areas in Nagrand. Specifically those are in the lake just south of the Throne of Elements, the lake south of Sunspring Post, in the waters around Halaa, and the small body of water south of the road leading into Terokkar Forest. His patrol areas are highlighted in blue on the map above.

If spawned in the water around Halaa he can be spotted from the air as he moves in and out of the shallow water and he is quite large. If he is in either of the deep lakes or the road into Terokkar you will probably not be able to see him from the air as he will most likely be completely submerged under water. NPCScan, Silverdragon and targeting macros will still be able to pick him up though. If you don't use any addons to hunt rares /tar gore will work just fine and Tracker Snacks will show him on your mini map if hes up. He is the only beast that spawns in each of these locations, so if you see that dot you'll know it's him!

Goretooth drops level 63 boe bracers that can be any armor type with a random enchant. Specifically he drops: Crocolisk Hide Bindings, Crocolisk Hide Bracers, Crocolisk Scale Wristguards and Crocolisk Scale Vambraces.

                                         

Bro'Gaz the Clanless (NOT PART OF BLOODY RARE)
Bro'Gaz the Clanless is the npc that Blizzard forgot about when they were putting together the list of mobs for the Medium Rare and Bloody Rare Achievements. It's kind of sad he got forgotten in such a way, but at least he's not being hunted down by a bunch of achievement hungry players with hit-lists.

Bro'Gaz is a level 66 two-headed caster-type orge. He can spawn and patrol in any one of three different areas in Nagrand. (Marked in red on the above map.) The three patrol areas are not very far from any one of the ogre encampments in the zone.

He drops only one item of note, and that is a level 64 boe necklace with a random enchant: Gronn-Blessed Warbeads.

Voidhunter Yar
Voidhunter Yar is a level 68 voidwalker that spawns south east of Oshu'gun and patrols around the outside of the structure. He can be found patrolling clockwise AND counter clockwise. I have killed him several times, and I've seen him going in both directions. His patrol route is highlighted in green on the map above.

He looks different from the voidspawns in the area because of the armor on his chest, the other mobs in the area only have shoulder armor. This however, does not make him easily spottable in my opinion. He is very close to the same size as the mobs around him and his chest armor is not easily visible from the air.

He also has an ability that you should be aware of if your taking him out with a toon around his level. If you played back in BC, you know how annoying the Negaton Screamers were in the Arcatraz. Those were the voidwalkers with the crazy lantern headgear that would put up a 75% resistance to what ever school of magic you hit them with first. Well, this guy does the same thing. So if your a shadow priest think about opening up with a smite or holy fire so that you can hit him with your shadow spells, frost mages open with a scorch, etc. As you can see in the video below he had up Damage Reduction: Nature because I hit him with Serpent Sting first.

He drops a level 66 boe belt, again it can be any armor type and will have a random enchant. The belts are: Voidweave Cilice, Voidhide Cord, Voidscale Belt and Voidplate Girdle.